146 WASPS AND THEIR WAYS 



the operator succeeded in getting several 

 of the combs, with a number of wasps on 

 them. 



The combs with pieces of the paper 

 walls were put in a cardboard box and 

 covered with mosquito netting, but this 

 had to be replaced at once by wire netting, 

 as the little captives gnawed their way out 

 the second day of their captivity. Fortu- 

 nately they were discovered just in time, 

 the box was covered with wire gauze, and 

 the refugees were caught and returned 

 to it. 



There were three sizes of cells taken. 

 One comb was composed entirely of small 

 worker-cells, one of drone-cells and one of 

 queen-cells. Several broken combs con- 

 tained worker-cells only, and in this par- 

 ticular nest each comb contained but one 

 kind of cell. The queen-cells were all 

 capped, and so were most of the drone- 

 cells, but in the worker-comb were larvae 

 of all ages, as well as newly laid eggs. 



